Choreography and Performance by Kaye Gary, K Dance

Violinist Suzanna Klein

This project was presented to me as a re-creation of a costume from one of the choreographer/performer's past performances. Loie Fuller was was an eighteenth century trailblazer in dance and theatrical lighting design, emphasizing lighting design in conjunction with dance. The concept was to create a large, blank, ever-flowing canvas to emphasize the lighting on the stage, while moving as continuously as the music. After analyzing past costume images and video of the performance, I sketched potential garment construction plans. After creating a 1/12 scale mockup, I created my pattern at a 1/12 scale due to size constraints and paper consumption. The construction consists of two half-circle skirts as the front and back gown panels gathered to a coutil yoke which was draped on the form, and over-sized rectangular wings with channels to hold the 4' dowel rod extensions, creating a beautiful flowing winged effect. The pattern was cut from 10mm Silk Habotai and took a total of 18 hours to drape, pattern, and construct.